We agree that monopolies are generally bad. What if the Medical Doctors decided that ONLY they and the Osteopaths could have the ability to control the health care system ? Think it couldn't happen? Read about SOPP and Resolution 814.

WHAT IS SOPP

THE TRUTH ABOUT SOPP

STOP SOPP AND 814

STOP SOPP

STOP SOPP AND 814

STOP SOPP AND RESOLUTION 814

Monday, May 10, 2010

THE BALLAD OF THE MAN AND THE SNAKE- A CAUTIONARY TALE FOR NURSES

There is a tale that at one point, was made into a popular song, about a human and a snake. The human helps the snake, nurses it to health, and in return, the snake bites the human. When the human is shocked and feeling betrayed by how the snake, whom the human nursed back to health has treated them, the snake replies that the human knew it was a snake when it found it, and that that is what snakes do, they bite people.

Since my synopsis was not as poetic or elegant as the original, I will
reproduce it here, and then, I want to make some points that have
to deal with nurses, SOPP, and more.

"

The Man and the Snake

As Adapted by Dr. Mike Lockett, The Normal Storyteller

A long time ago, a Man was walking along the road. As he walked, he saw a Snake that was caught beneath a large rock that had fallen on him.
"Pleassssse... help me," said the Snake. "This rock has fallen on me. I cannot move. The heat of the sun is killing me. If you don't help me, I will die."
The Man looked at the Snake and said, "If I remove the rock, you will bite me. Then, I will die instead of you." "Why would I harm the Man who has saved me?" asked the Snake. Besides, I am so weak, I only have enough energy to crawl back to my home to recover from this terrible event."

The Man was a kind Man and did not like to see anyone suffer, even a Snake. So, he lifted the stone off the Snake. As soon as the stone was removed from his back, the Snake raised his head high in the air, and he bared his long fangs. "Prepare to be bitten," said the Snake.
"This is not right," said 'the Man. "You promised not to bite me if I helped you." "You knew I was a Snake when you saw me. You knew that Snakes bite. You even said I would bite you when I was freed. You are right! Prepare to get bitten."

"Wait," said the Man. This is not fair."

"Who is to say what is fair," said the Snake.

"Please," said the Man. At least let us ask another creature to see if it is fair for you to bite me."

"Very well," said the Snake. "because, I know other creatures will agree with me!"

First they went to the Hyena. The Man asked the Hyena, "Is it fair for the Snake to bite me after I saved his life by lifting a stone off his back?"

The Hyena said, "Man has never been fair to me! So why should the Snake be fair to you?" Besides, the

Hyena thought he would be able to feed off the Man's body after the Snake bit and killed him.

The Snake raised his head to strike. But the Man said, "Wait! let's ask yet another creature."

They went and met Rabbit. The Snake stared at the Rabbit and said, "Is it fair for me to bite the Man after he lifted a rock off my back?" The Snake looked deep into the Rabbit's eyes.

The Rabbit knew that the Snake would eat him if he favored the Man over the Snake. So he said, "Man has never helped me before, so why should I help him? It is fair that you bite the Man."

The Snake again raised his head and prepared to bite the Man.

"Wait," said the Man. "Please let us talk to one more animal before you bite me." Just then, the Jackal walked by. The Man said to the Jackal, "Is it right for Snake to want to bite me, after I saved his life by lifting the Stone off his back?"

The Jackal replied, "I do not believe that Snake could be caught under a stone a stone so he could not get away. Unless I saw it with my two eyes, I would not believe it. Show me the place where you say it happened so I can see it."

When they arrived at the place where the Snake had been under the rock Jackal said, "Snake, lie down, and let me see how the the rock sat on you." The Snake laid down, and the Man covered him with the stone.

The Jackal asked, "Is this how you were when the Man found you?"

"Yes," said the Man and the Snake at the same time.

Then the Man started to take the rock off the Snake once again.

The Jackal stopped him. "Do not lift the stone off the Snake. He wanted to bite you before. If you lift the rock, he will do it again."

Then they both went away and left Snake under the stone."

OK...now, you may know that the symbol of the allopathic / medical profession is...wait for it...wait for it...A SNAKE WRAPPED AROUND A STICK (if the snake don't get ya, the stick will).

The medical symbol has ONE snake, entwined around a staff (fancy word for a stick), and is known as the "Rod of Asclepius"(also known as the asklepian). It is NOT the winged stick with two snakes. The latter is the rod of Hermes (also known as Mercury), and many MDs DO use this as their logo or symbol, and I think, given the SOPP issue, perhaps, it is more of a fit symbol. See this from Wikipedia

"The caduceus is sometimes used as a symbol for medicine or doctors (instead of the rod of Asclepius) even though the symbol has no connection with Hippocrates and any association with healing arts is something of a stretch;[15] as the symbol of the god Hermes, its singularly inappropriate connotations of theft, deception, and death, as well as the confusion of commerce and medicine in a single symbol, have provided fodder for academic humor.[16]

“

As god of the high-road and the market-place Hermes was perhaps above all else the patron of commerce and the fat purse: as a corollary, he was the special protector of the traveling salesman. As spokesman for the gods, he not only brought peace on earth (occasionally even the peace of death), but his silver-tongued eloquence could always make the worse appear the better cause. From this latter point of view, would not his symbol be suitable for certain Congressmen, all medical quacks, book agents and purveyors of vacuum cleaners, rather than for the straight-thinking, straight-speaking therapist? As conductor of the dead to their subterranean abode, his emblem would seem more appropriate on a hearse than on a physician's car.[17]
— Stuart Tyson, Scientific Monthly

”

Attempts have been made, however, to argue that the caduceus is appropriate as a symbol of medicine or of medical practitioners."

So, I would advocate that the rod of Hermes should be a more appropriate symbol, because it has DOUBLE the number of snakes!

Now, more to the nexus between the ballad of the man and the snake, and the modern treatment of nurses by the allopathic SOPP.
Firstly, as my brother-in-law is training to be a nurse (and is a former Marine...hooorahh!) and one of my best friends is an RN, and I have been a guest speaker before nurses, I have nothing but respect for nurses. I think it is altogether proper for nurses to be able to specialize and to move their profession forward. For far too long, the doctors (allopaths /MDs) treated nurses as glorified bedpan cleaners, and showed their contempt behind their backs, and treated them in sexist, second class citizen ways. Chauvinism does not have to be overt to be playing a part in today's workplace.
But, like the osteopaths (DOs, who were once, totally aligned with the DCs or Chiropractic doctors, but were allowed to become the "Little Buddies"of the MDs if they would just play ball and consummate the Faustian deal) the nurses began to think that the MDs were allies, were friends, and that they were being mainstreamed.

But, to use the horrible terminology of the South I grew up in, with all the racism that still exists, these "NURSES" started getting too "uppity" for the MDs tastes. They started believing they could be anesthetists, do pain management, and sacrilege of all sacrileges, could become DNPs...nurses with a Doctorate, and able to care directly for patients. Well, apparently this was a little to "uppity" for the AMA and its toadies, so they got their male panties in a wad and started movement to stop this "nonsense" (I use the sarcastic quotes to point out the use of the same sort of sarcastic quotes used by the SOPP MDs in their discussion of nurses becoming DNPs, and of examiners not making it clear that DNPs "are not as good as" MDs.

Look, just like the man with the snake, Nurses should have seen the way MDs (the AMA et al) persecuted and treated DCs and tried to run them out of business, but were exposed by in the Wilk v. AMA trial.

Just like in the story, we can envisage the Snake wrapped around the Rod of Asclepius, fangs drawn back , ready to strike anyone who make take their patient away from their control, and take away their revenue generators, and we can hear the allopathic snake hissssssing...
"But you knew I was a snake when you met me."

Word to the wise my friends.

As Ben Franklin said :"We must, indeed, all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately."

and, this from the Nazi Germany era...
"

First they came for the socialists,
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak out -
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me -
And there was no one left to speak for me."

Martin Niemoller (1892-1984)
If the SOPP folks attack the Optometrists, and I do nothing because I am not an Optometrist, and then, they attack the Psychologists, and I did
nothing because I was not a Psychologist, and then, they come for the Nurses, and I did nothing because I was not a nurse, when they come for
Chiropractic doctors, there will be no one to speak for me.

FIGHT THE EVIL, and remember my quote "“To see a wrong and not to expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance.” ~Dr. John Raymond Baker DC